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Arsenal and Newcastle United have produced many exciting encounters over the years, but what have been the most memorable in history?

Whether the Magpies were facing ‘Woolwich Arsenal’ or the Gunners as we know them today, there were scintillating performances from both sides – high-scoring matches not overly difficult to come across.

The first clash between these two teams dates back to 1893 where they played out a 2-2 draw in front of 6,000 spectators at Manor Ground – Arsenal’s former home.

Arsenal edge Newcastle in the overall head-to-head record with 77 wins, while the Magpies have won 67 of the 182 meetings.

But what are the most memorable of meetings between the two teams? Here’s a selection of the very best…

Newcastle 6-0 Woolwich Arsenal, September 1893

The second ever meeting between the two clubs was dominated by Newcastle. Both teams were in ‘Division Two’ at the time and it was the Magpies who impressed.

Joe Wallace and Bill Thompson both scored hat-tricks as the hosts annihilated the Gunners in front of just 2,000 fans at St James’ Park.

Copyright: Mirrorpix

Arsenal 2-1 Newcastle, April 1932

An FA Cup Final clash between these two in 1932 was an eventful one at Wembley Stadium.

It was Arsenal who struck first after Bob John scored fifteen minutes in, but a resilient comeback from Newcastle saw them draw level in the 38th minute courtesy of Jack Allen.

Allen then became the match-winner with 18 minutes to play and the Magpies lifted the FA Cup for the third time in 22 years.

Copyright: Mirrorpix

Newcastle 1-0 Arsenal, May 1952

In a period where substitutes were not allowed, this FA Cup Final was incredible. In front of 100,000 spectators, Arsenal suffered multiple injuries and finished the match with just seven players on the pitch.

Newcastle took full advantage of their numerical superiority and George Robledo wrote himself into the history books with an 84th minute winner.

Copyright: Mirrorpix

Arsenal 3-2 Newcastle, November 1958

Arsenal edged a five-goal thriller in 1958 and it was a memorable day for those in attendance at Highbury.

Vic Groves’ strike and a brace from Jackie Henderson gave the Gunners the win in a highly-competitive encounter.

Copyright: Mirrorpix

Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle, March 1975

Wilf Rostron joined Arsenal as an apprentice and made his debut against Newcastle in this clash.

It was a memorable day for Rostron as he scored on his first appearance for the Gunners, helping them achieve an impressive 3-0 victory.

Copyright: Mirrorpix

Arsenal 5-3 Newcastle, December 1976

Alan Ball, a member of the 1966 World Cup winners squad, made his final appearance for Arsenal in this meeting before moving to Southampton and it was certainly one to remember.

The game was a close contest but was separated by one man – Malcolm Macdonald. His hat-trick gave Arsenal all three points and ensured Ball finished his spell in London on a high.

Copyright: Mirrorpix

Newcastle 4-2 Arsenal, May 2000

On the final day of the season, Newcastle produced a magnificent performance under the guidance of Sir Bobby Robson and it was a sign of things to come.

Alan Shearer scored his 300th career goal to help the Magpies and he was delighted. He said: “I’m a very proud man tonight. When I set out on that road to Southampton at 15, I never dreamt that I’d score 300.”

Arsenal 5-0 Newcastle, December 2000

Despite losing 4-2 in the previous encounter, Arsenal turned up for revenge and that is exactly what they got.

Thierry Henry and Nwankwo Kanu scored for the hosts but it was Ray Parlour who stole the show – an excellent hat-trick completed the 5-0 demolition of Newcastle.

Arsenal 1-3 Newcastle, December 2001

An outstanding victory at Highbury in December put Newcastle top of the Premier League at Christmas.

Both Parlour and Craig Bellamy were sent off for each side and the 10-men of Newcastle proved to be tougher; late goals from Shearer and Laurent Robert sealed the win for the Magpies.

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Just days after being Liverpool’s hero in the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea, Adrian was brought back down to Earth with a bang.

The Spaniard was thrust into the spotlight for the Reds following Alisson’s calf injury against Norwich, and repaid Jurgen Klopp’s faith in him by stopping the all-important penalty on Wednesday night.

But against Southampton, the 32-year-old was guilty of making some key mistakes, particularly when in possession. And sadly for him, Saints forward Danny Ings capitalised on one of them when he diverted the goalkeeper’s attempted pass into the back of the net.

After seeing Adrian’s mistake cost them a goal in their eventual 2-1 win on the south coast, Liverpool fans took to Twitter to voice their concerns about the shot-stopper.

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Many wondered when Alisson would be back in contention to play, and hoped the Brazilian would come back sooner than expected to solve the Reds’ goalkeeping crisis.

Meanwhile, one even suggested Adrian should be sold following his error and insisted it came as no surprise that he eventually got caught out for his “nonsense”.

Check out some of the reaction of Liverpool fans below:

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Gaetano Berardi’s Leeds career has been an interesting one. The very fact he’s picked up six red cards during his time at Elland Road sums that up.

However, against Stoke on Saturday afternoon, he was back in form and put himself firmly in supporters’ good books following a defensive display in which he kept a clean sheet.

Berardi was playing in back three consisting of Ben White and Kalvin Phillips as the Whites secured a 3-0 win.

The Swiss defender came in for the injured Liam Cooper, a decision that seemed a possibility last week and had fans moaning about his potential inclusion.

But it appears they have been proven wrong, taking to Twitter to praise the 5 foot 10 man after an impressing showing that saw him win five aerial duels.

One fan made reference to the haters, seemingly happy with the way he played at the weekend whilst another said he’d get into the starting XI of every team in the Championship.

The 31-year-old was absolutely everywhere according to a further supporter as he was also described as a hero.

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Berardi scored against Salford in the League Cup a few weeks ago but this was his first start in the league so far this term.

Here’s the best of the reaction.

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There was once a time when Cesc Fabregas was a hero at Arsenal.

Across eight seasons with the Gunners, the 110-time Spain international made 306 appearances in all competitions, scoring 59 times from their midfield.

However, in 2011 he returned to Barcelona. Whilst there were not many who could hold a grudge against him for that, his move to London rivals Chelsea in 2014 was not to be forgiven.

It appears that the 32-year-old could have made another big move as well, and a lot earlier than the eventual switch to Barcelona. In an interview with Spanish outlet AS, Fabregas has been speaking about a potential transfer to Real Madrid when he was just 18.

“They have the bigger mentality” – Spurs fans come to blows after the North London Derby in the video below…

He explained, “There were a lot of talks with Florentino, and with [Ramón] Calderón. They called me more than once or twice. The first time I was very young. I was 18 and they offered me a big salary, but I felt like I belonged at Arsenal. Wenger had bet the farm on me. I couldn’t leave.”

Whilst it may have been intended to show his loyalty to Arsenal at the time, it appears that the Gunners fans are unwilling to let sleeping dogs lie. Some have taken to Twitter to slam their former number four, and you can see some of the best comments from the social media platform below.

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[ad_pod ]This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…After Football Insider’s Noel Whelan stated earlier this week that he wouldn’t be surprised if Manchester United would be willing to bid £90m or more for West Ham United midfielder Declan Rice, debate has been rife on social media.The 20-year-old has come through the ranks with the east London outfit and already become a key first-team player, making 74 appearances in all competitions.His performances for his club have seen him gain recognition at international level with England too, with his appearance against Kosovo at St Mary’s on Tuesday night his his fifth in a Three Lions shirt.Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

Having become a reliable shield for the Irons’ backline, he has already gained attention from the current top-rated club in England – Manchester City – according to The Sun.

While Whelan has tipped their arch-rivals United to make a move for him in the future, it remains to be seen whether it will actually end up materialising.

That said, there are many West Ham supporters who have already had their say on the hypothetical situation, and said they wouldn’t be willing to sell Rice for £90m, as you can see below.

While we have seen players like Virgil van Dijk and Harry Maguire go for huge fees in recent years, £90m for Rice would eclipse the prices for both of those individuals.

Let’s be honest, despite his age and the clear potential he has to get even better, turning down that offer for a defensive midfielder would be quite frankly ludicrous.

Van Dijk and Maguire as centre-backs are slightly different cases as they arguably have a more important role to play for a team, and West Ham could easily replace Rice and the role he plays – and then some – if they had £90m in the kitty.

For example, Toulouse’s Ibrahim Sangare averaged 3.7 tackles and one interception per game last season, according to WhoScored, with the same for stats for Rice coming in at 2.9 and 1.5 respectively. Yet, according to L’Equipe back in June the former was available for between €20-25m (£18m-£22.4m), so you can’t deny the options are there.

While it is understandable that Irons fans wouldn’t want to send out a message that they are willing to sell a player who has come through the ranks and into the first team, those that wouldn’t cash in are clearly ruling with their heart over their head for a player.

Ultimately, he is a player with less than 80 senior club appearances who doesn’t make a decisive impact at either end of the pitch – he has two goals and one assist for the Hammers, while he has only helped them keep 10 clean sheets in his 65 Premier League outings.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Pundit View series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent quotes from journalists, pundits, players and managers…

Vincent Kompany has administered very high praise upon Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.

What did he say?

The former Manchester City captain is regarded by some as one of the greatest centre-backs to grace the Premier League and his 265 appearances and four title wins suggest he is up there with the very best.

By comparison, van Dijk has spent much of his Premier League career playing for a club outside the top-six, although his arrival at Anfield has coincided with a huge improvement in the Reds’ goal against statistics, with Liverpool keeping the most clean sheets in the league last season.

The Belgian was speaking in a pre-match press conference ahead of his testimonial on Wednesday, and was asked the question of how he would compare himself to the other great Premier League defenders.

As reported by The Sun, he said: “I would bring it back to Virgil van Dijk, he’s not been on the scene as long as [John] Terry and [Rio] Ferdinand who have been around for a long time but the signs he’s shown in the last years.

“He’s shown if he had been around longer he’d have been at the top for a long time. The Liverpool before Van Dijk and after are a completely different set-up. I’ll give him that one.”

Kompany’s comments suggest that he believes the Dutchman is one of the best defenders to play in the Premier League, indicating that the form he is showing now perhaps eclipses what he or other defenders have previously shown.

Premier League great?

Although he didn’t hold back in his praise of the 28-year-old, Kompany did infer that one factor which works against van Dijk is the fact he has been unable to play at the highest level.

With only 24 appearances in the Champions League, the Anderlecht player-manager is correct, but the Liverpool man is showing no signs of slowing down and it is possible that he will continue his impressive form for some time.

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Unlike Kompany, he has maintained his fitness throughout his career and has only sustained one injury which has ruled him out of a prolonged period, though the intensity of playing every game for the Reds could see fatigue set in.

Another negative which critics may point to is his lack of trophies. Last term he added the Champions League to the Scottish Premiership titles he won at Celtic but he still falls some way below the achievements of Terry, Ferdinand and Kompany, and may need to win the Premier League to convince some that he is an all-time Premier League great.

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In what was a close encounter at Villa Park on Monday night, West Ham United looked to have a good chance of nicking the three points – until Arthur Masuaku’s second-half red card changed their approach.

Off the bench

With the score tied at 0-0, the Frenchman was handed a harsh-looking second yellow card by referee Mike Dean in the 67th minute, leading to him getting his marching orders.

Losing one of his full-backs left manager Manuel Pellegrini in a bit of a predicament, and he decided the best option at that point was to replace Felipe Anderson – who is arguably the visitors’ most dangerous attacking player – with experienced defender Pablo Zabaleta.

It was a move that worked from in terms of keeping it tight as they held onto a point and a clean sheet, but from an attacking sense it ultimately killed off any threat they could have in the final 20 minutes or so, and it didn’t go down well with some of the London Stadium faithful on Twitter.

The sub Pellegrini should have made

While it wasn’t necessarily wrong to play it safe by bringing the Argentine on, taking his South American teammate off was a mistake.

The 26-year-old has shown throughout his time with the Irons – he has 10 goals and seven assists in 45 appearances according to Transfermarkt – that he can produce that piece of magic in the final third and be a threat on the counter-attack, and there was a good chance West Ham could have utilised that even when they went down to 10 men on Monday.

The former Manchester City manager should have taken Manuel Lanzini off instead, before deploying a 4-3-1-1 formation which saw Declan Rice, Mark Noble and Pablo Fornals stay deeper in midfield, and Anderson given something of a free role off of target man Sebastien Haller.

At least with that system they would have still posed some sort of goal threat, because as it was Pellegrini essentially settled for a point as soon as the red card came out of Dean’s pocket, rather than taking a risk and trusting in his team.

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This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…

Three goals in his opening four Premier League appearances and some impressive all-round centre-forward performances – it is fair to say that West Ham United striker Sebastien Haller had made a positive impression for his new club prior to the visit of Manchester United to the London Stadium on Sunday.

In the matches against Manchester City, Watford, Aston Villa and Norwich City, the £45m club-record buy arguably didn’t really come up against a top-class centre-half who is big and strong in the air – think Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk for example.

Another one in Harry Maguire lined up against Haller when the Red Devils made the trip south at the weekend, and the former Frankfurt attacker didn’t really get much joy from his battle with the dominant England international, despite his own 6 foot 3 frame.

Watch West Ham United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The Irons may have run out 2-0 winners against Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men, but the Frenchman would have learnt a lot about himself and what is needed on certain occasions in the Premier League in this latest showing.

As Football London said in their player ratings from the clash, he barely had any touches in or around the opposition penalty area in the opening 45 minutes, and while he may have had the better of Red Devils centre-back Victor Lindelof, it wasn’t the same against Maguire.

That said according to WhoScored, the 25-year-old won nine aerial duels throughout the encounter – out of a total of 15 as per SofaScore – although he failed to have a single shot on target.

Haller was also dispossessed on three occasions as he simply didn’t have things his own way, with a rather disappointing passing accuracy of 71%.

If the Frenchman was even beginning to think this English football lark was easy following his goalscoring displays against Villa and Norwich, this certainly was a bit of a rude awakening and would have brought him down a peg or two.

What is clear is that Haller needs to work harder if he wants to get the better of the likes of Maguire and be a huge success in this league in the future.

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You wouldn’t necessarily know it looking at some of the reaction in recent weeks, but Arsenal have actually gone unbeaten in September.

They started with back-to-back 2-2 draws against Tottenham and Watford, before winning their next three games against Aston Villa, Eintracht Frankfurt and Nottingham Forest. The last two, in particular, were emphatic. In those two fixtures, the Gunners won 3-0 and 5-0 respectively.

Calum Chambers played a part in all three of the victories and has impressed at right-back. He has picked up a goal and three assists across those games.

His performances have led to him being named in Arsenal’s Player of the Month competition, and the club’s supporters have been voting in their droves. It seems as though the former Southampton man is a popular choice for the award too.

There have been a lot of comments on the Emirates outfit’s official Twitter page. You can see some of the best comments from the social media platform.

According to The Daily Mail, Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino’s treatment of three players this season has caused unease.

The report names Jan Vertonghen, Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli as the trio in question, with all being dropped by the Argentine at points during the season.

The former missed out on the squad entirely on the opening day against Aston Villa despite being available – with The Daily Mail reporting at the time that it was down to fitness levels and poor pre-season displays – while Eriksen had to settle for a spot on the substitutes’ bench against Leicester City and then Bayern Munich on Tuesday.

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Meanwhile, Alli was another who failed to make the 18 altogether for the trip to the King Power Stadium last month.

The Daily Mail says those occurrences have caused unease at the club.

Verdict

It is surprising to see players who have been so key during Pochettino’s tenure with the north London outfit left out of matchday squads, because even if they aren’t performing to the level they once were you would still expect them to be part of the 18.

Vertonghen especially is clearly an experienced and influential member of the team, so it is no surprise that the manager potentially having disagreements with the 32-year-old would cause some tension and unease.

It is also understandable in other ways however, with the 47-year-old manager probably frustrated that the Belgian and Eriksen both have less than a year remaining on their contracts, meaning the uncertainty over whether they will go or stay remains.

He could do without that distraction, but he also needs everyone onside and pulling in the same direction to get Tottenham back on track.